360 SEARS 



But if we add up the score, including Powell and Muir with van Hise, the 

 geologists come off with the pioneer honors. 



Two botanists, Hough and Gray, were on the committee of nine appointed 

 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science at its Hartford 

 Meeting in 1873 to memorialize Congress and the several state legislatures 

 upon the importance of promoting the cultivation of timber and the preserva- 

 tion of forests and to recommend proper legislation for securing these ob- 

 jectives. 



This committee made some sound recommendations, but the rape of the 

 Lake States forests was getting under way, and only a few prairie state 

 Congressmen seem to have supported the proposal. Had even the most rudi- 

 mentary measures been adopted to protect seedlings of that year, vast areas 

 of what is now wasteland would be yielding merchantable 83-year-old trees. 



Botany was represented by Charles E. Bessey on a second committee of 

 four, appointed at the Toronto meeting in 1891 to report at Indianapolis the 

 following year. This report not only dealt with forestry, but recommended 

 the adoption of careful scientific procedure in managing resources to sustain 

 the growing economy of the United States. The chairman of this committee 

 was the physicist T. C. Mendenhall, an able negotiator. At a meeting which 

 Bessey could not attend, it was decided to junk the general resource measure 

 and concentrate on forestry. The efforts of this committee, collaborating with 

 the American Society of Foresters, resulted in action by President Harrison. 

 The first reserve set aside was Yellowstone Park, and in 1899 Aven Nelson of 

 Wyoming secured free transportation from the Union Pacific Railroad for his 

 party, team, and wagon, to make a botanical survey of that area. 



Meanwhile Bessey at Nebraska began directing the attention of his stu- 

 dents toward the two great natural plant resources — forest and grassland. 

 Under his auspices a small and short-lived but excellent school of forestry was 

 organized. From it came distinguished leadership in forest research, thanks 

 to the high standard of academic and scientific training its graduates had 

 received. This fact deserves to be underscored at a time when technical schools 

 of various kinds are so insistent upon "practical" and specialized curricula. 



So far as grassland is concerned, the record is even more impressive when 

 we consider the work of Shantz, Clements, Pool, Weaver, Arthur Sampson, 

 and Hanson, all of them students of Bessey. If the fundamental studies of 

 this group were being applied to the economy of our great interior grasslands 

 with a measure of the thoroughness that industry exhibits in applying the 

 physical sciences, we might have a healthy and balanced condition instead 

 of the present chaotic waste (Hewes and Schmiedling, 1956). 



On a smaller but significant scale other botanists have contributed to the 

 solution of resource problems within their local areas. In Iowa, Pammel and 

 later Dr. Ada Hayden did much to encourage the protection of natural areas. 

 Cowles likewise took a leading part in setting aside the Cook County pre- 



